Xcode 4: good parts and bad parts
Xcode 4 slowly replaces Xcode 3 for my projects. Benefits become more important than problems. So here is my list of things I like and dislike about Xcode 4:
Like:
1. Tabs
2. “Open Quickly” with fuzzy search by filename (cmd+shift+O), like cmd+T in Textmate.
3. Jump bar
4. Smarter autocompletion
Finally, the tabs and jump bar turned out to be the single reason to use Xcode 4 despite all of its annoyances. On a complex project window management consumes a lot of time.
Dislike:
1. The major problem with Xcode 4 is performance: switching between tabs, opening sidebars, autocompletion — all happen with noticeable delay even on iMac with i7 processor and 8 Gb of RAM. Bonus track for the latest Macbook Air: sometimes Xcode 4 eats 150-200% of CPU doing something (no matter whether debugger is launched or not). And when the debugger is connected to iOS Simulator fans just never stop. I hope this will be resolved with next updates.
2. No retina display mode yet in Interface Builder (but IB 4 is slow as hell, so I use IB 3 instead anyway).
3. Stupid (== “too smart”) assistant editor. When I choose another file manually, it is sometimes reset to some counterpart. And Open Quickly always opens in the left pane. Assistant editor has no value to me until these issues are fixed.
4. LLVM and LLDB. Turns out, the latest LLVM compiler has subtle bugs with nested blocks (sometimes self becomes an incorrect pointer) and LLDB does not display values for properties which were declared without corresponding ivars.
There are some things about Xcode 4 I don’t really care about:
1. Git support. I have a Gitbox anyway, which offers complete set of operations (committing from Xcode is a nightmare and pushing is simply not possible). Surprisingly, I’ve never used blame or in-editor diff. Those features sound useful, but in practice are rarely needed and feel sluggish.
2. IB drag-and-drop to source code to create actions and outlets. Xcode is slow and produces some awful code which needs cleanup anyway. Same thing goes for code snippets that take more time to find/drag/edit than to simply type the stuff.
3. iTunes-like status panel. I usually collapse the toolbar anyway, so I don’t see all those distracting animations.